I don"t open them — ever — and if an unscientific survey of my colleagues is any indication, I am far from alone in this delete-on-sight detachment from these ubiquitous electronic annoyances. A few co-workers open e-cards selectively if not gingerly; most do not at all.
The matter percolated to the surface recently when Symantec released its latest "State of Spam" report that included this nugget: "Greeting card spam remains a spammer favorite. Symantec saw over 250 million of these spam messages being targeted towards a sample set of customers in July."
Seems as though at least two or three a day make it by our spam filters. (No word of a lie: Three have popped into my inbox since I"ve begun been writing this item.) ... Delete, delete ... delete. Not so much as a moment"s thought.
One reason that I"ve unilaterally stopped opening them is that I receive so many that are obviously spam that I do not consider it worth my time to attempt to differentiate between those that are spam and the one in 100 that might actually be from someone I know. The cost simply outweighs the benefit.